Company News

Mergers & Acquisitions

Chesapeake Energy will sell its assets in the northern Eagle Ford Shale and Haynesville Shale to EXCO Operating, a subsidiary of EXCO Resources, for USD 1 billion. The acquisition covers approximately 55,000 net acres from Zavala, Dimmit, La Salle, and Frio counties in Texas, which includes 120 producing wells.

Chesapeake Energy sold a 50% undivided interest in approximately 850,000 acres in northern Oklahoma for USD 1.02 billion to Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production. Assets associated with the transaction produced approximately 9,600 B/D of liquids and 54 MMcf/D of natural gas during the first quarter of the year.

Schlumberger bought Gushor, a Canadian-based petroleum geochemistry and fluid analysis company that provides production and exploration solutions for heavy oil and oil sands.

Xodus Group bought Dubai-based Prime Energy as part of its major expansion drive in the Middle East. Prime Energy’s team will form part of Xodus’ subsidiary based in Dubai, which will be renamed Xodus-Prime DMCC.

Petronas Carigali incorporated a new wholly owned subsidiary, Vestigo Petroleum, to focus on development and production activities from small, marginal, and mature fields in Malaysia and abroad.

Vietnam and China have extended an agreement to jointly explore for oil and gas in the Gulf of Tonkin until 2016. The new agreement expands the area covered from 1541 km2 to 4076 km2 under the initial arrangement. The operational responsibilities and costs will be split evenly. The joint exploration is led by Petrovietnam and China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

Cameron and Schlumberger received all required regulatory approvals for their joint venture, OneSubsea, which will manufacture and develop products, systems, and services for the subsea oil and gas market. Cameron will hold a 60% interest and Schlumberger the remaining 40%.

Cimarex Energy and Chevron will jointly develop Cimarex’s combined Permian Basin acreage in Texas spanning 104,000 acres. Chevron will pay USD 60 million to secure a 50% stake in the Cimarex-built Triple Crown gas gathering and processing system and wells drilled on the acreage.

Costain acquired EPC Offshore, resulting in the launch of Costain Upstream, a new divisional operation. The new company will have more than 350 employees and will provide services across the life cycle of upstream offshore oil and gas assets.

ALS Global acquired Reservoir Group for USD 533 million. The transaction includes operational infrastructure in approximately 40 sites globally and 900 employees.

Company Moves

Schlumberger announced the official opening of its Schlumberger Reservoir Laboratory in Chengdu, China. The 32,000 ft2 facility offers an integrated suite of petrophysical and geomechanical services to help customers improve hydrocarbon recovery and maximize production throughout the life of their reservoirs.

Petronas announced it has begun construction on its first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Malaysia in June. The facility will be located in the Kanowit gas field in Block SK306, which is 112 miles offshore Sarawak and will have the capacity to produce 1.2 MTPA of LNG.

Contracts

ExxonMobil awarded two contracts for work in its Julia field development in the US Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Walker Ridge block. Oceaneering International will supply 14 miles of electro-hydraulic, steel tube umbilicals for hydraulic control fluids, chemicals, and electrical power signals in early 2015 to operate and monitor the subsea wells and manifold. A subsidiary of McDermott International will carry out an engineering, procurement, and construction contract including six subsea wells, one six-slot manifold, two umbilicals, six jumpers, two flowlines with two steel catenary risers, two subsea pump modules, and topsides support equipment beginning in the second quarter of 2015.

Nido Petroleum Philippines, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nido Petroleum, was awarded a 12-month extension of Sub-Phase 6 of Service Contract 54A by the Philippine Department of Energy. The contract will allow the SC 54A joint venture time to complete engineering and field development studies offshore west Philippines before making a decision to enter Sub-Phase 7.

2H Offshore, an Acteon company, was awarded a contract by Total for the delivery management of the tension leg platform top tensioned riser (TTR) systems for its Moho Nord field development offshore Congo. The company will be responsible for the riser delivery management, including design finalization, procurement management, and inspection services for 17 production and water injection TTRs and one high-pressure drilling riser.

Aker Solutions won a contract from Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) to supply a drilling equipment package a production platform at the Mariner field in the North Sea. The contract includes a complete topside equipment package and support services to DSME’s shipyard in South Korea. Delivery of the contract is expected to be completed in 2015.

Wison Offshore & Marine, a subsidiary of the Wison Group, was awarded a contract from China Oilfield Services to supply one 3,000 hp modular drilling rig for use on the Tsimin field in the GOM. Wison will perform the project management, procurement, production engineering, fabrication, load out, offshore installation, and commissioning of the modular drilling rig.